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Thursday, June 18, 2015

Diet Week 1: Successes and Failures

Here I am to check in a week after starting my diet...

This is tough. Seriously tough. I know a lot of readers can relate to the struggle, but I'm always overwhelmed with how difficult dieting is at first. I've managed to lose about 1 kilo since I started (maybe 2lbs?) last week, but it fluctuated up and down the whole time. I'm not trying to dismiss my progress, but it really feels like a drop in the bucket compared to what I have to lose. Still...if I continue to lose 1kg a week, after about 40 weeks I should be golden! Let's focus on the big picture.

Maybe slower is actually better. I can tell you right now there's no way I'll be able to fully stick to Miranda's diet as I posted last week. It's just not realistic for my lifestyle at the moment, but it's definitely something to aspire to (juicing and all!). Of course, not being able to go out much adds an extra layer of challenges. I should be happy because I have more time to prepare food, but instead I'm spending all my extra time thinking about what I'm going to eat that day. I mean, replacing social interaction with food would be a lot more fun if I could eat whatever I wanted! Pizza and Netflix makes isolation so much more tolerable.

My spirit animal.
(Adventure Time copyright CN)

Now I'll talk about what worked for me and what didn't over the last week.

What worked:

Drinking lots of water. I drank about 2 liters of water a day for the last week. It hasn't really made me less hungry, but I definitely feel better overall when I'm well hydrated. I think my skin is clearer too!

Eating more fruit and veggies. I just did my best to get 2 servings of fruit a day, even if it's all at once in a smoothie.

Eating more salads. Ok, I only ate a few salads...but a few is better than none, right? ^^;;

Eating less dairy. Except for some fat free milk in my cereal sometimes, or occasionally a small slice of cheese on a sandwich, I've been able to avoid dairy pretty well. I love cheese so much, but it's just so bad for me T-T

Lemon and ACV in hot water every morning. It wakes me up and my body seems to like it. ^^

Cutting out sugar. Leaving sugar alone was much easier than leaving carbs, cheese, pr soft drinks (which I guess is sugar too). I even baked a chocolate cake in my rice cooker, frosted it with cream cheese frosting, and gave the whole thing to my bf yesterday. It was hard, not gonna lie.

What didn't work:

Giving up cola. This is the big one! I managed to only drink Coke Zero which is calorie free, but I really want to shake the habit for good! That stuff is poison. I thought sparkling water was ok, but my nutritionist said all sparkling drinks expand your stomach and cause you to eat more. That just sucks! I'm trying to switch to iced Mate tea, which you might know from the Sistar commercial with the catchy song and hot guys. Cycle Body Bora, Pool Body Soyou, Party Body Dasom, and Club Body Hyolyn? Did they really get those figures by drinking this tea? I doubt it, but whatever. I want those S-lines!!!! Gimme teaaaaaaaaa!

Preparing all my own meals. It's so hard, y'all! I don't even have the excuse of "Omg I'm sooooo busy!" cuz I'm really not these days. It's just hard to go from preparing just dinner 3-4 nights a week to preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. I can't lie and say I did that, but I will try harder next week. I did manage to prepare some yummy healthy meals.

Giving up carbs except for controlled portions of brown rice. Yeah, um, FAAAAAIL. It was so hard to give up my bread! I bought some healthy whole grain rye from the bakery and ate it up so quickly! Gotta ration that better next time!

So there's my little update. I'll check in again next week with measurements and comparisons between Korean diet advice and American diet advice. For now I'll just leave you with some fitsperation in the form of K-pop girl group Sistar!

Really random comment and I'm not even sure if you're active anymore (if yes, congrats on the engagement and presumed marriage by now?) - but I wanted to thank you for writing this. I'm a EU size 46-48 (US 14-16) and I'm so self-conscious about my size and weight even at home. We visited both Japan and Korea - Seoul last year and I didn't experience anything bad nor noticed anymore gesturing anything rude towards me but I don't speak either language more than basic phrases so I can't really no what could've been said about me... that makes me sort of paranoid, even though guess I should enjoy while my language skills are still at that state ;) (Unfortunately) I also LOVE Korean food aka EAT ALL THE KOREAN FOOD and I'm worried that people think I'm a slob and a pig or something... but I still want to enjoy all of it while being on holiday! I guess it could also be a bit of a body type & looks things (big boobs, big butt, long blonde hair and blue eyes, that's me that is, not describing you :D ) that you don't get judged so easily? But your blog sort of makes me feel at ease and maybe validate that what I experience was the truth. So - thank you :)

Hi! I haven't been active on the blog since getting married this spring, but your comment made me so happy! I'm glad you had a wonderful experience in Korea! I hate the idea of plus size women (and men) being scared to go enjoy themselves there because of their weight. I definitely feel more comfortable in Korea than Japan mostly because of my height (I'm 5'8), and body type makes a difference. Essentially, Koreans don't usually judge foreigners by their own standards.

Yay I'm so happy my comment reached you! Though reading this now I realize that a)I commented under wrong post b) my grammar/typos are horrid. I do apologize I think it was closer to 1-3am and I was midnight browsing *^.^;; We visited Korea again this year and again I had no problems other than my own inner demons ;) Congrats on your marriage, I wish you both all the best!